There a lot of things to think about when it comes to dating outside your decade. Herewith, the good, the bad and the ugly of dating young:

The good
Dating someone younger keeps you young, says Jane Ganahl, former singles columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Plus, there’s that whole sexual-compatibility thing. “If we can believe that nugget that women and men hit their sexual primes at different times, then a 25-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman is the best of all possible worlds,” she says.

The bad

A lack of life experience can be both a blessing and a curse, though. On the one hand, it means your date’s baggage compartment is more likely to be free of ex-wives and kids. On the other, they may still be on close terms with their inner child, a laundry-impaired brat who can’t get enough of video games and/or Family Guy.

The ugly

None of us dates in a vacuum, of course, and remarks by friends and family can have a souring influence on even the sweetest May/December romance. Men have to deal with “vicious” comments, too. And then there’s that whole cougar thing. And let’s not forget nature’s cruelty.

“At the end of the day, the 30-year-old I was dating really wanted to get married and have kids, and I wasn’t interested in that,” says Ganahl, who documented this and other relationships in her memoir, Naked on the Page. “I already had a daughter in college. So that’s another downside. You can’t really ‘work on’ the fact that you’re older.”

The big picture

Dating someone older has its challenges, too. Men raised in a more traditional era can be controlling and/or unwilling to accept independent behavior. And society makes certain assumptions about the older man/younger woman match, too. But despite the issues, there are couples that make it, says Sarah, a 36-year-old reporter from Seattle who’s been married to a man 10 years her junior for the last four years.

Readers, it’s your time to speak out! Do you think relationships between two persons from different generations can actually last? Shout out your thoughts below!